DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A former lottery security official was found guilty Monday of rigging a computerized Hot Lotto game so he could win a $14 million jackpot then trying to get acquaintances to cash the prize for him without revealing his identity.
Prosecutors said Eddie Tipton inserted a stealth program into the computer that randomly picked the numbers then deleted it so it could not be detected. Although Tipton, 52, never got his hands on the winning total, he was charged with two counts of fraud.
Jurors found him guilty Monday after just five hours of deliberation. Tipton declined to comment after the verdict.
Tipton, of Norwalk, had been working for the Des Moines-based Multi-State Lottery Association since 2003 and was promoted to information security director in 2013. The nonprofit association is operated by 37 mostly state-run lotteries to oversee picking numbers for various games and other lottery game administrative functions.
As an employee, Tipton was prohibited from playing the lottery in Iowa. He was fired after his January arrest.